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Sunday, July 20, 2014

There is something special about Linux Mint - their ability to deliver consistent performance release after release. Also, amazingly Linux Mint's design is pretty much consistent across desktop environments - Cinnamon, Mate, KDE and XFCE. I already reviewed the KDE and Cinnamon versions and today it is the turn of my favorite of all - Linux Mint 17 XFCE. Another thing as well, as I am in a trip to the USA and outside my favorite setup (I didn't bring my favorite test laptop here Asus K55VM, as it is quite heavy and along with my heavier office Lenovo Thinkpad, it would have broken my back). So, till Sep-14, I may be a little bit infrequent in writing blogs.

On 26th June 2014, Clement Lefebvre announced the release of Linux Mint 17 "Xfce" edition: "The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 17 'Qiana' Xfce. Linux Mint 17 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2019. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use. The Update Manager was hugely improved. It shows more information, it looks better, it feels faster, and it gets less in your way. It no longer needs to reload itself in root mode when you click on it. It no longer checks for an Internet connection or waits for the network manager and it no longer locks the APT cache at session startup. Linux Mint 17 features Xfce 4.10, MDM 1.6, a Linux kernel 3.13 and an Ubuntu 14.04 package base."

The release announcement is pretty similar to what I saw for Linux Mint Cinnamon and KDE flavors. I already discussed them in my respective reviews. Hence, I'll discuss them briefly but primary focus will be the functionality of the XFCE spin. For this review, I downloaded the 1.3 GB 64-bit Linux Mint 17 XFCE ISO and created a live USB using Linux Mint Image Writer. Next, I installed Mint 17 XFCE on my Asus K55VM in a multi-boot environment with other Linux distros.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Deepin (formerly Linux Deepin, Hiweed GNU/Linux) is an Ubuntu-based distribution that aims to provide an elegant, user-friendly and reliable operating system. It does not only include the best the open source world has to offer, but it has also created its own desktop environment called DDE or Deepin Desktop Environment which is based on HTML 5 technologies. Deepin focuses much of its attention on intuitive design. Its home-grown applications, like Deepin Software Centre, DMusic and DPlayer are tailored to the average user. On July 6, 2014 Deepin released it's LTS version with 5 years of support based on Ubuntu Trusty Tahr. The release note states of the following features:

"Deepin 2014 release - hold your dream and move forward. Deepin is a Linux distribution that aims to provide an elegant, user-friendly, safe and stable operating system for global users. Based on HTML5 technologies, Deepin team has developed a series of new special software applications, such as Deepin Desktop Environment, Deepin Music Player, DPlayer and Deepin Software Center. Deepin 2014 brings a brand-new Deepin Desktop Environment 2.0, with a specially designed Deepin theme, which makes the overall style and appearance of Deepin 2014 unified, neat and tidy. It also adds convenient features, such as user guide, starter Chinese phonetic search and intuitive hot zone settings."

For this review, I downloaded the 1.2 GB 64-bit ISO and created a live USB using Linux Mint Image Writer to install it on my Asus K55VM laptop. Linux Deepin ships with Deepin desktop environment 2.0 (DDE), Linux kernel 3.13.0 and Files 3.8.1.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Ubuntu GNOME's first LTS is the only Ubuntu Trusty spin that I missed out reviewing. Finally I got a chance to pen down a review after using it for over 2 months. In between, the Linux kernel is updated, LibreOffice is now 4.2.4.2 and a lot more security updates have happened. But, anyway, it is better late than never. So, to begin with, in April 2014, Ali Jawad announced the release of Ubuntu GNOME 14.04, the latest update of this official Ubuntu flavour featuring the vanilla GNOME 3.10 desktop: "The Ubuntu GNOME team is proud and happy to announce the release of Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 LTS. Ubuntu GNOME is an official flavour of Ubuntu, featuring the GNOME desktop environment. Ubuntu GNOME is a mostly pure GNOME desktop experience built from the Ubuntu repositories. This is our very first long-term support (LTS) version. Features: Most of GNOME 3.10 is now included, the few missing bits of 3.10 are available in PPA; with GNOME 3.10 comes enhanced support for online accounts, and some general optimization of the user interface; a set of 10 new high-quality wallpapers are included; GNOME Classic session is included...."

I downloaded the 64-bit ISO, about 1 GB in size. I created a live USB using Linux Mint Image Writer and installed Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 on my Asus K55VM, on a 50 GB partition. In between, I checked it on my Asus X200CA with Secure UEFI boot and touchscreen as well. It worked as good as Ubuntu 14.04.

Ubuntu GNOME ships with GNOME 3.10.1, Linux kernel 3.13.0 and Files 3.10.1 as the default file manager. It has the stock untweaked GNOME 3.10 but has Tweak tool pre-installed to customize the desktop and make it more usable.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Peppermint OS is a Lubuntu based distro offering lightening fast speed, superb cloud and web-based applications and is easy on system resources. On 23 June 2014, Kendall Weaver announced the release of Peppermint OS Five, a Lubuntu-based lightweight and easy-to-use desktop Linux distribution: "Peppermint OS LLC is excited to announce the launch of our latest operating system, Peppermint Five. Lightweight and designed for speed, Peppermint Five delivers on that promise whether using software on your desktop, online, or using cloud-based applications. Highlights: built on a long-term support (LTS) code base, Ubuntu 14.04; Peppermint Ice is our in-house built SSB manager, it has been rewritten from scratch and is now significantly more stable and more feature rich than past versions; we've fixed a number of upstream bugs present in Lubuntu, the specific project we fork from; Peppermint-Light is our new window manager and widget theme designed to offer a clean and relatively flat look and feel."

For this review, I downloaded the 600 MB 64 MB ISO which features LXDE desktop, Linux kernel 3.13.0 and PCManFM 1.2.0 as the file manager. I created a live USB using Linux Mint Image writer and installed Peppermint on my Asus K55VM.